The crew reported safe heads and vessels to the nearest port as the location of the explosion is unclear.
An explosion has hit a boat in Israel near the strategic mouth of the Gulf, the United Kingdom Maritime Trading Operations (UKMTO) said a maritime security company said Friday.
The crew and vessel were safe, according to UKMTO, which is operated by the British navy. The explosion forced the Bahamas-flagged MV Helios Ray to enter the nearest port.
The incident happened at 20:40 GMT on Thursday, the UKMTO said, but did not provide any information on a possible cause.
“Ships moving across the area are advised to exercise caution,” he said.
The 5th U.S.-based Bahrain Navy was “aware of and monitoring” the situation, Commander Rebecca Rebarich told The Associated Press news agency. She declined to comment further immediately.
The British maritime organization took the ship’s last position as off the coast of Muscat, the capital of Oman.
Maritime security company Dryad Global said the MV Helios Ray was a vehicle carrier owned by Helios Ray Ltd, an Israeli company registered in the Isle of Man. The ship was on its way to Singapore from Dammam in Saudi Arabia.
While the situation of the explosion remains unclear, Dryad Global said the explosion may have come from “unbalanced activity with Iran’s military,” which he said would be “symmetrical” with higher regional tensions.
The Israeli Ministry of Transport said they were not aware of the incident.
As Iran seeks to pressure the U.S. to lift sanctions and return to the 2015 nuclear agreement, the country may seek to “use strong diplomacy through military means,” the Dryad report said.
Iran did not immediately accept the incident.
Suspicious attacks on oil tankers
Two oil tankers were attacked near the strategic Hormuz Strait in June 2019, an attack that left one ablaze and adrift while sailors were evacuated from both vessels and the U.S. Navy rushed to aid higher tensions between Washington and Tehran [File: ISNA/ AP Photo]
In the summer of 2019, against the backdrop of sharply rising tensions between Iran and the administration of former President Donald Trump, the U.S. military blamed Iran for suspicious attacks on two oil tankers. near the Strait of Hormuz, one of the most strategic shipping routes in the world. .
The blasts came after the U.S. handed over a series of clashes in the region to Iran, including the use of limpet mines – designed to be magnetically attached to a ship’s hull – to attack four oil tankers. off the nearby port of Emirati Fujairah, and the bombing of an oil pipeline in Saudi Arabia by Iranian-backed fighters.
Conflict between the countries escalated after Trump with a unilateral withdrawal from the nuclear deal in 2018 and the reinstatement of harsh sanctions on Iran. In response, Iran has gradually and publicly breached the nuclear deal with world powers to create levers over Washington to return to the treaty, which Tehran agreed to limit its uranium enrichment as trade lifted crude sanctions.